As computer systems have advanced, the demand for system memory for execution of applications has increased rapidly. The amount of system memory in a computing device can have a significant impact on the performance of the computer system as well as the user experience.
Similarly, graphics processing units (GPUs) have become increasingly advanced. Correspondingly, the memory used by GPUs has increased to satisfy the demands of increasingly advanced GPUs. The memory is used for storing calculations and data necessary to generate an image (e.g., the frame buffer). Unfortunately, when a GPU is in an idle state, such as executing non graphics intensive applications such as spreadsheets, word processing, and email programs, etc., a vast portion of its memory remains unused. Thus, a majority of the memory remains unused until graphics intensive applications (e.g., games or applications involving graphics rendering) are launched, if ever. Among other things, this unused memory consumes power which is thus wasted during a GPU idle state.